Thursday May 28, 2015

Although we were up early, we were late leaving. Andreas and Emilio peppered us with more questions and we discussed drafting, eating and hydration.

I made breakfast for all of us, cheesy omelets, we shared our toast and peanut butter, but not our yogurts!

An easy ride today. The route kept us away from Hwy 101 for most of the route, which was nice as 101 looked quite busy. We saw quite a few cyclists today, I think most of them were on a supported ride as they were carrying very little.

We are now in Oregon and the difference in the car drivers is already noticeable. Although we were on quieter roads, they gave us lots of room. Californian drivers were crazy, they would overtake with little regard as to what they could see around a bend or on a blind hill.

There were some interesting buildings on the route today.  The Bank in Smith River, which is now a bar.

This house was made completely from Stainless Steel.

We kept seeing these rows, I asked a lady what they were and they are Easter Lilys that they grow for the bulbs.

We arrived in Brooking at 12:30 and had lunch in the supermarket café. Although it is cool and grey skies, we knew we had to camp and there was a hiker/biker site at the Harris Beach State Park.

We checked in $5.00 per person and then were told that the water had been turned off for a water main repair and wouldn’t be back on until 4:00.

I am getting fed up of being cold and cycling under grey skies. No sunshine in Northern California and the prospect of sun in Oregon is limited.

I really dread camping now, I hate being cold and I am looking for any excuse to take a motel and to persuade Ralf to stay in motels. Although he isn’t really enjoying the camping, he is looking at the cost of motel versus hiker/biker sites.

We resigned ourselves to a quiet, cold evening inside the tent. Then once again other cyclists showed up, Ralf lit a small fire and we had quite the gathering, two Germans, a Brit and four Americans. For some reason we didn’t exchange names, which is such a shame because the Germans and the Brit were really nice people, very interesting. The Germans had cycled in Sri Lanka for a month and really enjoyed the cultural differences. The Brit was cycling from Vancouver to Mexico, he had taken his last semester at the University of Toronto, because of the timings of the semesters (finishing in April in Canada and starting at the end of September in the UK) he could afford to take almost six months to cycle the coast.

The German fella asked Ralf if he was to do it again would it be now or at 25. Ralf’s answer was he was a career soldier, so to give up his career would have been tough for him. I said that I had travelled when I was younger, and it was fun, but doing it at this time of life is good, because we have more time and no deadlines. It wasn’t the answer he was looking for.

The Americans when they joined us dominated the conversation. They chatted about their travels in South America, expecting us all to be impressed. Then they looked at Ralf and I and asked where we had started from, expecting us to say Seattle. We told them we were heading north because of the route that we had already taken through the US from Tampa, Florida. “So you have done the Southern Tier before the Pacific Coast”. Well, actually we are cycling around the world! They left shortly after that.

When you have a great evening around a camp-fire chatting to really nice people, you forget about the inconveniences of camping and enjoy the experience.